The air felt different when Alaric appeared. It wasn't just the electricity that sparked around him an otherworldly presence that distorted reality itself but the suffocating sense of inevitability. As though the earth was holding its breath, waiting for something to snap.
Selene didn't know how to react. Her body froze, caught between the lingering terror of Viktor and the gut-wrenching recognition of the man who haunted her past. Alaric's gaze locked onto hers, a burning intensity that made her skin crawl. His dark eyes, once warm and comforting, now felt like a curse, an imprint on her soul that she could never escape.
He stepped forward, the ground beneath his feet seeming to buckle with every step. The space between them was charged alive with every emotion Selene had ever buried beneath layers of ice and fear. Anger. Regret. Desire. And above all, pain.
"Alaric…" she breathed, the name slipping from her lips like a whisper from another life.
